NRA Wishes ‘All Guns, Ammo’ For Peace On Earth Day; Critics Explode
“What is WRONG WITH YOU?” asks one stunned foe on Twitter.
Today's Liberal News
Finding joy amid the trauma of that Christmas I spent at a homeless shelter
This story first appeared on Daily Kos on Dec. 24, 2020, and its reception has cemented it as an annual holiday tradition. I was so touched this spring when first this tale of my seventh-grade Christmas was nominated, then won an honorable mention in the 20th Anniversary Koscars Personal Essay category.
This story is true, and it’s important to me, as it offers a glimpse into the extremes of life and how rapidly we can veer between them.
Ukraine Extra: The one television series that best explains the march into authoritarianism
UPDATE: Sunday, Dec 25, 2022 · 10:28:08 PM +00:00
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kos
Christmas Eve on the front line pic.twitter.com/n6OtITz2dy— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) December 25, 2022
Merry Christmas, everyone.
This might not seen at first to have much to do with Ukraine. There’s not a tank or APC in sight and though there are drones, they’re of a very different sort. Still, hang with me for a moment.
GOP Sen. Mike Lee Called Rudy Giuliani A ‘Walking Malpractice’ In A Text: Jan. 6 Report
The text was regarding a voicemail apparently meant for GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville as part of Giuliani’s attempt to sway Republican Senators into blocking the Electoral College votes.
A Black Birch in Winter
Illustrations by Miki LoweNot everyone appreciated Richard Wilbur. The second poet laureate of the United States, he was the recipient of multiple Pulitzer Prizes and a National Book Award. Still, plenty of readers thought he was … a little meh. One New York Times reviewer said that reading Wilbur’s collection The Mind-Reader was like conversing with “an old friend whose talk is genial but familiar—and occasionally dull.
Ukraine Unplugged
Every morning my brown terrier, Hans, comes to wake me in the dark. As he jumps around impatiently, hurrying me up for a morning walk, I glance at my light switch’s electricity indicator. If it shines blue, I am lucky: The electricity is back. I can brush my teeth using tap water before the walk. But if the blue indicator is off, that means no water, no light, and no central heating. On those days, I launch into a new routine that involves cold bottled water and flashlights.
The Cynic’s Dilemma
Hopefully this isn’t horribly apparent, but this piece was a slog to write. It required overcoming my professional disposition, resisting my cognitive wiring, and drying out from a certain website that I used to fiendishly inhale.For a long moment in global politics, the planet seemed to be hurtling toward authoritarianism. It was terrifying, but I found myself strangely suited for apocalyptic times.
In one state Senate race, signs of a national struggle over abortion
Gov. Glenn Youngkin has proposed prohibiting the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy in his recently released budget, but doesn’t yet have the votes to enact that ban.
Covid-19 and overdose deaths drive U.S. life expectancy to a 25-year low
A baby born in 2021 can expect to live 76.4 years, down from 78.8 in 2019.
First post-Roe spending bill includes no funding boost for family planning, angering groups
With Republicans taking the House majority next year, progressives had framed the bill as a critical opportunity.
Why Democrats warmed to severing Medicaid eligibility from the Covid public health emergency
The Congressional Budget Office assumes the public health emergency for Covid will expire in July — barring another extension by the Biden administration.
‘THE central issue’: How the fall of Roe v. Wade shook the 2022 election
More than 50 Democratic and Republican elected officials, campaign aides and consultants took POLITICO inside the first campaign after the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling.
A Year of Botched Executions
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.This year, the state of Alabama botched three consecutive executions by lethal injection: One man died after three hours of apparent torture, while two others lived. “The state’s incompetence,” Elizabeth Bruenig wrote last month, is “a civil-rights crisis.
How Many Republicans Died Because the GOP Turned Against Vaccines?
No country has a perfect COVID vaccination rate, even this far into the pandemic, but America’s record is particularly dismal. About a third of Americans—more than a hundred million people—have yet to get their initial shots. You can find anti-vaxxers in every corner of the country.
U.S. inflation slowed sharply to 7.1 percent over past 12 months
Even with last month’s further easing of inflation, the Federal Reserve plans to keep raising interest rates.
Fed jacks up rates again but Powell hints it might slow down
Inflation has cooled only slightly and job growth remains strong.
Voters remain gloomy despite recent economic gains
A new POLITICO-Morning Consult poll suggests voters’ views of the economy are baked in.
U.S. economy returned to growth last quarter, expanding 2.6 percent
Housing investment, though, plunged at a 26 percent annual pace, hammered by surging mortgage rates.
“The Quest to Defuse Guyana’s Carbon Bomb”: Meet the Environmental Lawyer Taking On ExxonMobil
We speak with Guyanese environmental lawyer Melinda Janki about how she’s taking on the oil giant ExxonMobil to stop the company from developing an offshore oil field that would turn Guyana into a “carbon bomb.” Guyana is currently a carbon sink, but Exxon plans to produce more than 1 million barrels of oil a day, which could transform the South American country into one of the world’s top oil producers by 2030.
“This Is a Racial Backlash”: Stanford Prof. Hakeem Jefferson on Role of White Supremacy in Capitol Attack
The House select committee on the January 6 attack released its final 845-page report Thursday, and the word “racism” appears only once throughout the entire document — despite the central role white supremacist groups played in the insurrection. “Those who stormed the Capitol … didn’t merely come in defense of Donald Trump,” says Stanford professor Hakeem Jefferson, an expert on issues of race and identity in American politics.
“The Central Cause of January 6th Was One Man”: House Panel Urges Trump Be Banned from Public Office
The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol released its final 845-page report on the insurrection at the Capitol and Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election. The report names former President Trump as the central cause of the insurrection and calls for expanded efforts by the government to combat far-right and white supremacist groups.
“We Are at a Precipice as a Nation”: Cornel West & Christina Greer on Jan. 6 Insurrection & More
We speak with Fordham University political science professor Christina Greer and theologian Cornel West about the January 6 committee’s recommendation that former President Donald Trump and his allies be criminally charged for their role in the insurrection and attempts to overturn the 2020 election. “Just because it’s unprecedented doesn’t mean that we can’t have prosecutions,” says Greer.
Adam Schiff Says One Part Of Jan. 6 Hasn’t Gotten Nearly Enough Attention
Schiff, a member of the Jan. 6 committee, wrote that Republicans are receiving “scant attention” for their votes to overturn the 2020 election.
Ukraine update: Revisiting my pre-war look at the looming Russian invasion. Let’s see how it held up
Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Six days prior, I wrote a preview of the coming war. Now, at the end of 2022, it’s as good a time as any to see how well it has held up. I’m reading it fresh right now as I write, and I will make bracketed editorial notes in italics as I react to my predictions. Theoretically this should be fun, so let’s have at it!
Putin has backed himself into a lose-lose corner.
A reader poll chose two Hallmark holiday movies to watch. Here are my reactions
Two winners emerged from the recent poll on a piece I wrote about made-for-TV holiday movies in the Hallmark-Lifetime vein. The question was which movies I, or we, should watch, and the answers were Hanukkah on Rye by a landslide, followed by Christmas at the Golden Dragon.
Notably, both of these—though actual Hallmark productions—were big departures from the formula.
Ukraine update: The battle for Svatove approaches as Ukraine reportedly liberates four more villages
UPDATE: Saturday, Dec 24, 2022 · 9:45:52 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
#NewsMap Great news from #Opytne, just south of Bakhmut, where Ukrainian forces regained around 80% of the settlement. pic.twitter.com/FDsbTIjoJG— Julian Röpcke🇺🇦 (@JulianRoepcke) December 24, 2022
The latest advances show that Ukraine has reportedly liberated a series of four villages just west of Svatove.
The real reason for the attack on libraries
I have an unshaken conviction that democracy can never be undermined if we maintain our library resources and a national intelligence capable of utilizing them.
–Franklin D. Roosevelt, in a letter to publisher Herbert Putnam
When people list the worst jobs to have, few would probably have picked being a librarian in Lafayette, Louisiana.
Merry Christmas
It’s that time again, Christmas Eve, with everyone gathered round the fire with their liquid warmer of choice and visions of sugar plums. Here’s your slightly more eco-friendly hearth. May your holiday and your new year be full of warmth, love, and happiness.
YouTube Video
(P.S. If you want a little more action in your evening’s background, head below the fold.)
Here’s what the Oklahoma Humane Society presented for Giving Tuesday this year.
Jen Psaki Goes After Trump, Jan. 6 Witnesses For Leaning On 5th Amendment
Psaki remarked that Donald Trump must have been “so disgusted” by the witness testimony transcripts released earlier this week.
Kari Lake Loses Suit Over Her Defeat In Arizona Governor’s Race
Lake was among the most vocal 2022 Republicans promoting former President Donald Trump’s election lies, which she made the centerpiece of her campaign.